Welcome everyone to the penultimate OER for this rendition of ETEC523. Over the last few weeks, we have had the privilege to engage with some wonderfully curated OER’s that have explored many new and exciting facets of mobile and open learning. Inspired by these experiences, we have been working hard to bring to you our OER on Podcasts this week.
We are happy to now invite you to join us on a journey into the world of podcasts that will start by looking at what podcasts are (and what they are not) along with exploring what exactly makes this medium so unique. Our focus then shifts to investigating the use of podcasts within different educational contexts and we will also spend some time highlighting the changing podcast business landscape. Along the way you will listen to our very own podcast created for this OER, share with us some experiences of your own podcast escapades, learn how to make a podcast and voice some of your opinions on what potential you think exists for podcasts and learning.
To access our OER, please click here or click on the image above.
Alternatively, if there are any issues, you can copy and paste this link into a browser: https://sites.google.com/view/etec523podcasts/home?authuser=0
Please enjoy!
Jamie, Binal, Natalie, Ben and Carla
P.S. We’ve linked in some of the other OERs from this course that are relevant to podcasting… so see if you can spot them on the website!
What an awesome resource! Someone could go into it having never heard of podcasts, and leave ready and excited to get their own going. How marvellous! I don’t feel like there’s a angle you didn’t touch on and the whole site was so cohesive and well thought out. Very impressive indeed. And I liked how the bulk of the time was spent on education and educators. Knowing your audience is key and you certainly accomplished that!
My question with podcasts in the classroom has always been around, well, questions. As podcasts aren’t interactive, it’s impossible to check for understanding as the lesson is going along. I suppose there’s no real way around that, but nothing’s perfect. I see podcasts as a great way to modernize the “sage on the stage” aspect of teaching that while not ideal, is sometimes necessary. The portability of them – as was touched on in your OER – gives them tremendous weight as far as i’m concerned.
Again, fantastic job!
Hey Tyler,
You bring up a valuable reflection – that conversational exchange is not something a podcast enables. However, we could always use them as prompts for discussions or exchanges afterwards, so that may be a middle ground compromise if wanting a speaking/question space. That, or a pause and play approach. I guess it really depends on what you’re using it for!
Thanks for the encouraging feedback. Glad you enjoyed it 😀
Hey Podcast Team,
Thank you for a great OER. I really appreciate the time and effort that you put into providing us with a strong resource. I really like how well your site flowed, and the ease with which I was able to work through it while on my phone. I’ve found that with some OERs, there is a lack of flow between sections and the quality of writing varies too much. That really wasn’t the case with yours – the writing was clear and informative throughout. Did you have somebody on the team designated to edit the sections for clarity and consistency of message? Whatever you did, it really made it feel like your group came together as one voice. If there’s one aspect that didn’t flow as well, and that I think could use a bit of work, it’s the Business of Podcasting infographic. I appreciate how much work was put into it, and there was some really interesting information, but some parts didn’t seem to make as much sense to me, like the metric showing 7 million dollars spent in advertising on podcasts in 2018 (I think that was the stat), which doesn’t seem to add up with the other dollar figures stated elsewhere in the infographic (where is the rest of the revenue coming from, if not from ads), and the mention of 15% of Apple’s Top 20 podcasts being celebrity-created being a 32% increase. I was left scratching my head, wondering what was really meant and what I was missing. Aside from that though, a great OER that I’ll definitely look at using in the future and mentioning to my colleagues. Thanks again.
We appreciate your feedback James and are glad you enjoyed our OER. No, we didn’t have one single person edit the sections for clarity and consistency. I think what you’re seeing is our really coming together as a group early on. We didn’t just divide up sections and do them independently and then throw them together. We came together as a group and decided what topics we wanted to cover. We then all went off and researched all sections and pulled in resources for the project as a whole. From there we divided up who would focus on what section based on interest. So for example, when I dove into my sections, I could see the notes I left, as well as the notes and suggestions left from my other group members. So in essence, you are hearing from all of us in all of the sections. It worked really well!
There was a lot of information in the business section so we decided to do an infographic. Perhaps it was a tad too much. I appreciate that feedback and am thrilled you enjoyed the OER overall.
Hi All,
I was thinking more about podcasts in education, and I had some interesting conversations regarding the adult perspective in education. Someone said that where podcasts are lacking is the ability to search, highlight and annotate. If you were actively listening throughout your daily tasks, while formally learning (rather than informally learning), you lose the ability to go back and search for one topic to see how it connects to a different topic an hour later. Interview podcasts are different in the way because the host allows the conversation to go in any direction. But a scripted lecture-based narrative might require you to take notes or make connections between ideas throughout the talk.
Does anyone have any suggestions on how we could integrate those aspects of learning into podcasts?
Hi Kristin,
I’ve often felt the same way while listening to audiobooks. It’s possible to stop, open the app and type out a note, but this breaks the flow of the experience, and is not particularly effective (you still need to be able to find the note again later!). Using Audible, you can leave notes for yourself and it will remember your notes, so this is functional, but not simple enough to use that I have made heavy use of it.
I wonder, if it were possible to integrate voice commands into the podcasting app, and then issue a command to pause the playback and record an audio note for yourself. The app would then also ideally combine the podcast with your recording for your reference. I don’t currently know of a way to achieve this though!
~Matt
Hey Kristin, Hey Matt,
This is a very good reflection point. There have been some conversations in this thread about how to manually integrate active listening and note taking into podcasts, but considering whether it would be good to integrate this functionality into the medium or platform itself is a thought-provoking idea. It ties in a lot with people saying that transcripts should be an automatic part of podcasts as well.
I think these two issues would then work hand in hand. It’s harder to note an audio file specifically, although voice activated prompts like Matt suggested would be a good start, but if associated transcripts were provided it would be much easier to highlight and annotate since that is already a prominent part of text functionalities we have (Word, google docs, pdfs, kindles etc all allow this already).
Re-reposting a good Ben comment from earlier:
“As for how to keep students on task while listening to podcasts, I personally use sketchnotes and other reading style handouts to keep students focussed while listening. Even in grade 9 I feel this is an effective strategy. I often ask studnets to draw 8 sketches while listening to episode that connect to big ideas and themes of the series. I also ask them to to ask 3 questions at the end of the episode, or to make predictions. We use the podcasts to help develop literacy skills.”
Hi Everyone,
In my courses, I always include transcripts with my podcasts. I do so for accessibility, learning preference, and note taking.
I’ve recently discovered a couple annotating tools that I’ve been thinking could help bring peer-to-peer interaction to the podcast experience. I haven’t tried it yet, but it feels like it should work. The two tools are Perusall and Hypothes.is. You upload a reading/text (or you can link to a textbook) and students and instructor can highlight portions, notate, and discuss as a group in the tool. I can see what notes you took and you can see mine. I can also add comments to yours and you can add comments to mine (essentially, we would be having a discussion that would be located to the side of the text). As an instructor, I could add reflective questions throughout the text that I want my students to consider. I hadn’t thought about it until this week, but I may try uploading a podcast transcript in the future and having students be able to take notes and discuss using one of these tools.
Hi Natalie,
That is an excellent idea. Transcripts for podcasts would be so helpful and to create an option for students to then go back and reflect and annotate would provide such a beneficial experience.
I have a few questions for you since you have included podcasts in education:
1. Do you have any analytics embedded that can show you how many students engaged with the podcasts?
2. What has been the types of feedback that you have received from students?
3. Are the podcasts more interview-based or narratives of lectures and papers?
4. How long have you been including podcasts in your courses?
I am interested in the evolution of podcasts in higher education over the past decade. Any insight would be so helpful!
Hi Kristin,
Apologies for the delay in response! To answer your questions:
1) I don’t really. I have analytics that can tell me how many students clicked on it, but I can’t see if they listed to the full podcast or left after 5 seconds. You can typically tell who actually listed to the podcast during the discussion or connected assessment. Very similar to readings, I won’t know for certain if you read it, but I can typically guess when you submit your assignment 🙂
2) Students enjoy podcasts. I must say though, I design for higher education. That could play a role here. Students mention enjoying having variety in their course (not just textbook readings). They also mention enjoying the mobile aspect. They can go for a walk and listen to the podcast at the same time.
3) I’ve done both mini lectures and interviews. The interviews are highly received. I think it’s because it more closely resembles the traditional podcast. It’s relaxed…sometimes the opposite of a lecture. I encouraged instructors to use a more relaxed tone and reserve podcast usage for “light” topics. Podcasts don’t work if the content is complex – for obvious reasons students tend to struggle.
4) I’ve been using podcast type audio recordings for many years. Not sure I would quite call them podcasts. I would embed auto clips in my courses at the end of a lesson or week where the instructor would wrap up the week in a short 2-3 minute audio clip. It was much easier to replace those when needed than videos, which often meant the instructor had to go to the studio and be recorded. It then evolved into the more traditional podcast we see today.
Let me know if you have any other questions!
Thank you so much for responding Natalie. I have completely changed my topic of my ETEC 540 final paper to podcasts in higher education and how they influence the changing space to reading and writing. It is really worthwhile to get a first person account of what they have put into practice and what is successful. I really appreciate the response because I think I might do the same audio clips into my online courses. Sometimes I get an idea for a video to embed, but I just don’t feel like editing, a podcast is great and much more relaxed.
I might take you up on the offer to answer any other questions that I may have. Thanks again.
I’m for the idea that transcripts should be an automatic part of podcasts; however, they should not be given to students at the very beginning. Activities can be planned for the podcast itself first, and then at a later stage transcripts can be provided for further discussion and collaboration supported by such tools as Perusall and Hypothes. Thank you for sharing 🙂
Definitely one of the biggest concerns I’ve had regarding using podcasts in education is how to easily build in a way for students to recall the pertinent information learned through podcasts. Thanks for starting this conversation, as it’s elicited some thoughtful responses.
I have to confess that podcast is one of the tools that I have not been using, so far, for my classes. Actually, some of my students have started to use a podcast as an additional tool to improve their listening skills. Since they were excited about the podcast, for their oral exam I told them that they could do a podcast on any subject but in the target language. To my surprise, they were pretty happy about this assignment.
The only time I listened to a podcast was when I had to work on one of my assignments. These days instead of having the tv on as background noise, I am playing podcasts while I am working on my projects. Right now I am hooked to the crime podcasts. Should have not been for your OER, I would not have used Podcast. I wonder if the podcast has done enough “marketing” for people like me to be willing to try this amazing tool. I am using podcast for subjects I am interested in, I am not sure how my reaction would be on if I use the podcast for other purposes.
By the way, loved the podcast on Pokemon Go.
Hey Silvia,
How interesting! It’s really cool that your students sought out podcasts on their own and that you then moved to allowing them to use podcasts as a knowledge production tool.
Welcome to the world of always having a podcast on in the background! Interesting thoughts about marketing for podcasts, I agree that if you haven’t been directed to them it’s easy to never find them. I think marketing is still on the low end because many podcasts are DIY and don’t earn much money (so platforms don’t want to spend time/money on promoting them)… but it would be great if they were a little more visible in the world of online media! Where would you like to see/hear about them more?
Glad you liked the pokemon podcast. Thanks for sharing your thoughts and insights
Hey Team Podcast!! Great OER! I used to use radio plays in my class at alternate programs to try to get kids hooked on storytelling (nothing like a good cliffhanger for that!) and podcasts seem like a natural evolution of those. I’ve also played them for both my kids (cool stories and science facts for my 10 year old son and spooky, eerie tales for the 13 year old daughter) and they have gone and branched out and started finding their own to listen to on their spotify accounts. It’s made for some really lively dinner conversation!
Thanks for the informative and awesome OER!
Greg
Hey Greg,
Glad you enjoyed the OER, and that you’ve had such great experiences using stories and podcasts with your students and kids 🙂 I think that storytelling is such a powerful tool, and it’s great to introduce these into young lives as much as possible.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts 🙂
A thought on podcasts and diversity – as we move culturally towards embracing and encouraging more diversity in visual representations of people, is it important to also embrace diversity in podcast audio?
Language is a big carrier of culture – do we lose anything if podcasts are “white-washed” by mostly being hosted or narrated by people who use Standard American English?
Hi Anne,
your comments remind me of the phrase lost in translation. I believe the host or narrator would need to have cultural knowledge on the subject he is presenting to keep its “origins” and not being white-washed by Standard American English.
Hey Anne, Hey Silvia,
I think absolutely things are lost if it is a primarily White/Western (or just generally W.E.I.R.D) medium. I think this is why the ease of access to making and sharing podcasts is so important, because it means that it has the capacity to move and shift outside of that socio-cultural paradigm much easier than many other mobile technologies. Major barriers to participating in technological spaces are usually access to technology (devices) and infrastructure (internet access). Podcasts have low-end requirements on both these fronts and could therefore be a medium that moves across traditional developed/developing global north/global south divisions.
Having free and easy access to a creative medium, however, doesn’t necessarily mean that a diverse set of people will create with that medium. There are cultural factors that can dissuade women and BIPOC from being cultural creators. Apparently the diversity of listeners in the US matches that of the population, but 85% of podcasts are hosted by white males.
Podcasts seem like a perfect democratic medium because of the ease of access you mention, but actually getting diversity into a field requires a lot more than ease of access.
Team Podcast, thank you for a wonderful and delightful OER! I had not listened to any podcasts in a few years after running through the first two seasons of Serial, but the Ira Glass video lit a fire in me, as he is one of my favourite radio voices. I really only started listening to podcasts when I lived in Toronto on my walking/streetcar commutes to drown out the noise of the city, but I’m going to start listening as I do chores and garden because I’ve really missed This American Life. I saw this new podcast by Sarah Koenig and Ira Glass on the problem of segregated schools in the U.S. and it is next up for me: Nice White Parents https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/23/podcasts/nice-white-parents-serial.html
Hey Mel,
Ira Glass is the one who got me into podcasting too, SUCH a great voice. Thanks for the rec on Nice White Parents, I’ll add it to the Collab Library now 🙂
Happy to hear you enjoyed the OER 😀
I absolutely love Ira Glass. It was weird seeing him in video form because he didn’t look like what I expected him to (not that I’d conjured up anything in my head, but I think some voices are so unique that no face can really fit them. Have already found Nice What Parents and subscribed to it, so thanks!
Thanks for a great intro to podcasts. I’m not a heavy consumer, so was intrigued by the variety of topics and platforms available. Many folks have alluded to the medium being an excellent companion to a long commute, doing chores, etc. I tried for years to get into the medium, but am still struggling with it. I’ve listened to a few (i.e. The Verge’s Why’d You Push That Button?, NPR and Reasonable Doubt) but found I still gravitate towards audiobooks or narrations of longform articles. After going through your OER, I’m willing to give this medium another try!
One thing a few of us touched on was the inaccessibility of podcasting. I’m still shocked that SoundClound, a major podcast host has yet to implement the ability to upload/embed a text transcript. Users have requested the functionality for years on their support blog but we’ve yet to see a response from the company. By not making it an essential part of their functionality, it puts the onus on the listener to find a workaround, reach out to the host(s) or abandon the podcast altogether.
On the flip side, I’m optimistic seeing the increase in the number of podcasts that have a lived experience element. I think the reason I was put-off by the medium, was due to the feeling of “person A talking about person B”. Now, I’m starting to see examples of podcasts where we can hear authentic and personal stories.
Hi Aiann, I’m happy to hear that our OER has helped convince you to give podcasts another go. Regarding your comments on the inaccessibility of podcasts- you’re quite right in that text transcripts aren’t available all round but there definitely seems to be a shift in the right direction to incorporate them. As more people become aware of the need to cater to all groups of people with different abilities, I think the medium like many other mediums have begun to address this. There is still a long way to go on this front but I think you’ve touched on a very valid point.
Text transcript upload ability should be absolutely be a given!
Hi team podcast! Thanks for a great week of learning. I love listening to podcasts however I have not used them in my classroom yet. After this week I feel like it would be a great idea for students to showcase their learning by creating a podcast where they can share what they have learned. This might be a good big buddy project. Thanks for sharing!
Thank you, Tyler! Do try podcasts with your classes and hell yeah, it will be an awesome big buddy project!
Hi Binal, I think I will try this with my buddy class. As I have been thinking about podcasts more and more, I am wondering if it would be possible to do this with a buddy class at a different site. That would be really cool. Getting the students perspectives from a different location rather than just older kids from the same school. hmmmm now my mind is going in circles during summer break lol.
Hi Tyler, I’d love to hear how a project like this goes in your classroom! Wouldn’t it be great if we could update our OER’s in a year’s time to include the projects that were inspired by them? Good luck with putting this project together and please reach out if you’d like any other help that you think we might be able to offer. I’m also happy to share the podcaster’s toolbox editing document with you if you’d like to adapt them for your grade level.
Hi Carla, I will for sure let you know how this turns out. That is a great idea to update your OER for next year and future users. I think as technology changes the better and more easier things will become, like podcasting!
Hi Podcast Team!
I really appreciated all the instructions/guides you provided on how to make a podcast and also how to find podcasts. Your OER is bookmarked in my browser as you provided many helpful resources that I can utilize it in the future! I also liked how you were able to make connections with the other OERs from this course, that was a very creative idea!
I saved it too! I want to try this next year with the class.
Awesome! Thanks, Juliano! Hope you try podcasts out with your students and have fun 🙂
That’s fantastic Juliano. I’d like to extend the offer I put to Tyler in that I’m happy to share my infographic and podcaster’s toolbox editing documents if you’d like to adapt them in anyway in future for your students. Just reach out. 🙂
Feeling pretty honoured to be bookmarked! Thanks wonderful people 🙂 Glad it was enjoyed
Hi podcast team,
Great OER! I already love podcasts for personal use, I listen to them all the time!
Your website had great flow and I particularly liked:
– The user generated podcast list on the home page – especially how it was professionally displayed after the google form response. More work on your end, but it looks great.
– The pros versus cons side by side for podcasting.
– The linking of other OERS!
Podcasts have been a great tool for me to continue learning. They are a fantastic form of (albeit passive) informal education.
Thank you, Adrian, for sharing valuable feedback and highlighting what you liked about the OER. Hope you were able to get some ideas to use podcasts in your (educational) context!
Thanks Adrian! Just one point on your comments (which were all fantastic, thank you)- I personally think there is lots of scope to turn the passive listening of podcasts into a more active type of activity. Ben made the great suggestion earlier in the week of having his students drawing the main ideas of a podcast on paper or making summaries as they’re listening and of course as soon as you move away from just listening to the makers-end, then it becomes a very active style of education.
Hey Adrian,
What an organised complement 😀 Thanks! I also make use of them as a passive form of continual learning, they’re great for that.
Hi Podcast Team,
Thanks for sharing such valuable information in your OER. I really enjoyed working through the activities this week. I enjoy listening to self-help podcasts because they are helpful in my own personal journey of self-growth. To be honest, I don’t use podcasts very often in my class. I always thought podcasts were meant for older students. In the classroom, the only one I’ve used is the Disney Magic of Storytelling podcast on Spotify. Something that I noticed is that my Grade 2/3 students enjoy the sound effects and different character voices that are present in this podcast. It makes the visualization process more interesting for them. After exploring your OER, I am interested in using this platform more frequently to support the learning process. In particular, I am looking forward to trying out the Circle Round podcast. I like that it explores important issues through story. I read that each episode ends with an activity that can facilitate a discussion with the students.
Thank you for your comments, Ravneet! Hope you find some exciting ways to incorporate podcasts with the little ones and have fun with it! 🙂
That’s super exciting, Ravneet! If possible, please keep us updated on how this goes. In future, it would be fantastic if we were able to incorporate some user experiences of this cohort of ETEC523 back into the OER.
Hi Team Podcasts! What an absolutely fantastic OER! Your OER is beautifully laid out, easy to navigate, fun, easy and very informative. I learned many things from your OER especially since I have not done much in podcasting until now. Now I am ready to jump right into podcasts in my classroom. I really like the podcasts library, I am so happy to see Quirks & Quarks in the library and I discovered many new ones such as 60-Second Science. I like how you linked other groups OER in your OER . What a neat idea! Where you connected the DIY OER with the idea of students making podcasts instead of the old writing assignments hits a home run for me. The whole of the section on Education is the best part for me, beautifully done and because I am interested in the idea. Congratulations on a great OER! I love it!
Thank you for your comments and feedback, Ram. We’re glad you found the OER useful and feel ready to try podcasts in your practice!
Hey Ram,
Fab! Glad the OER site was a homerun for you, and that you found some new podcasts to enjoy as well 🙂
I’ve been thinking over the last two days a lot about comments many of you (and even the creators of the OER) have made regarding the difficulty in finding podcasts we’d like to listen to and so I’ve been wondering what you all think about the role that algorithms could/ should play in this? YouTube famously makes use of an algorithm that sees up to 70% of videos watched on the platform based on its recommendations. Is this something we would want to see in the podcasting world though on the various platforms we use? I think this is a debatable issue for a number of reasons and I am really curious to hear what you all think.
One the one hand it might seem as if this could solve the issue at hand of finding podcasts we’d like to listen to but on the other hand we would be placing a lot of trust in that algorithm to make sound recommendations that are fair and ethical. I’m sure many of you are aware of the criticism YouTube is facing for the use of their secretive algorithm and the so-called filter bubbles associated with it. It basically boils down to the idea that once you view a video of let’s say a protest from the viewpoint of the protesters, then your recommendations would be to view even more videos on the protest from the viewpoint of the protesters. If you chose to look at a video of the protests from the viewpoint of the police then your recommendations would be to continue watching videos only from that viewpoint. This creates what is called algorithmic echo chambers and the danger thereof is that many would only see one side of the story. I guess its easy to say it’s our responsibility to look for videos on both sides of the story but how many people do that and with close to 70% of videos being watched on YouTube based on recommendations, the statistics seem to show that there is a dangerous bias built into that algorithm that has tremendously impacted the videos people watch on the platform. Taking that into account though, is there perhaps a novel opportunity for the podcasting world here- could a more ethical and transparent algorithm be built and implemented? And then on the business side of things, if such a platform is successfully developed, would that maybe lead to the domination of that platform in the market? Those are my thoughts and questions currently, I’d love to hear your opinions…
The problem with algorithms is that balanced is not part of what they are designed to do… They are meant to look for patterns, and then lock into them, defining that person by their repeated behaviours and then reinforcing those repeated behaviours. I really dislike this, because it starts cutting off my chance of finding new things unlike anything I’ve heard before. Those moments of finding something way out that I didn’t expect to like but ended up loving is a wonderful experience and something that algorithms diminish.
Personally, sure podcasts are hard to find, but that’s where your community comes into it. I’ve seen a lot of people also mentioning how podcasts come to them through recommendations of family, friends, and colleagues. That is a human algorithm I’d really prefer to reinforce rather than a computerised algorithm making assumptions for me.
That said, there is a possible alternative/middle ground. Rather than an entire platform run off an algorithm, have an algorithm running down the side of things you might like. So your searches and suggestions aren’t manipulated by an algorithm, but there is an area on a platform dedicated to algorithm based suggestions you can visit at will and make opt in/opt out use of. That, for me at least, would be the ideal way to bring an algorithm into the mix.
Keen to hear what others say!
I do believe that Spotify recommends podcasts based on what you have listened to, similar to their daily playlists. I agree that Youtube algorithms are dangerous, a fantastic podcast about this is called Rabbit Hole, by the NYT. I think I mentioned this one to the group early on in the planning process.
Great discussion here!
I believe more and more people are aware of the algorithm nowadays. Back in 2013, a study which involved 40 subjects who were selected to mimic the demographics of the U.S. population indicates that 62% of people didn’t know that their News Feeds were being filtered (Luckerson, 2015).
The concept of “gated information-communities” proposed by legal scholar Cass Sunstein (2001) is a powerful one. Sunstein perceptively warned that the Internet is being used to make people see exactly what they want to see. That is, readers can personalize the news that crosses their sceens, pre-selecting topics and sources, which makes them less readers of the news and more of info-consumers (as cited in Willinsky, 2002). Sunstein asserts that democracy should allow people to be exposed to materials that they would not have chosen in advance and that unplanned, unanticipated encounters are central to democracy itself (idbd).
More alarmingly, the algorithm could be biased. Heilwail (2020) wrote in his article, “Why algorithms can be racist and sexist”, when Amazon tried to use AI to build a résumé-screening tool a few years ago, résumés selected tended to come from men. Since machine learning works on old data on training data, in the end, the system learns to discriminate against women…
While mobile and open learning brings more and more accessible resources to the general public, enabling individuals to continue their own education and extend education beyond formal schooling, what will that transform formal education? Do you think that people need a certain level of formal education to participate effectively in a modern democratic education? Willinsky implied in his article “Democracy and education” that it will probably fall to the schools to teach new lessons on locating and drawing on intellectual resources that best serve the processes of justification and criticism while man feels perplexed in front of such a varied body of knowledge which has never been in his possession before. This brings us back to the essential skills of the 21st century that we’ve been talking about again: critical thinking, collaborating, and problem solving etc.
What are your thoughts?
References
Heilweil, B. (2020). Why algorithms can be racist and sexist. Vox. [Web log post]. Retrieved from https://www.vox.com/recode/2020/2/18/21121286/algorithms-bias-discrimination-facial-recognition-transparency
Luckerson, V. (2015). Here’s how Facebook’s news feed actually works”. Time. [Web log post]. Retrieved from http://time.com/3950525/facebook-news-feed-algorithm/
Willinsky, J. (2002). Democracy and education: The missing link may be ours. Harvard Educational Review, 72(3), 367-392. doi:10.17763/haer.72.3.0nj018h638677r24
Yes Ben, exactly what helped me connect the idea of what algorithms could do for podcasts!
I don’t have time to find podcasts on my own and usually follow the recommendations of friends or the media. I’ve listened to only a handful of podcasts so I would welcome an algorithm to help me find more, but I can see the downside after some time. I feel like my Spotify totally misunderstands my tastes/music listening moods sometimes, and I do enjoy coming across new music, not just another song that sounds like the last one.
Same, my Discover Weekly is such a hit or miss experience!
I am a huge fan of podcasts, and I am also a huge fan of this OER! I think the podcast team has done an excellent job distilling this sizeable topic/industry into its essential elements. Many of the points I wanted to bring up ( power of storytelling, DIY podcasts and the practicality of podcast learning) are already mentioned, so I wanted to bring some attention to a blog post made by a longtime friend of MET, Tony Bates (https://www.tonybates.ca/2020/05/28/new-podcast-on-the-future-of-online-learning-and-higher-education-post-covid-19/). Tony provides a summary and promotes his two podcast interviews with Mark Nichols who is developing a series of podcasts called Leaders and Legends of Online Learning (https://onlinelearninglegends.castos.com/podcasts/691/episodes ). Mark’s podcast is very polished, insightful and professional. Marc announces on his homepage his work is dedicated to the experts on online learning. The podcast focuses mainly on HE, but much of the commentary applies to all aspects and levels of online learning. Apart from Tony’s interviews on the future of online learning during the COVID era, I would like to recommend episode #34, an the interview with Dr. Dave Cormier from the University of Windsor (Effective Education in the Online Resource-rich Abundance – https://onlinelearninglegends.castos.com/podcasts/691/episodes/034-dave-cormier). Dave’s insights into how knowledge is created today and the shift away from mastery learning directly applies to the bottomless pools of knowledge available through blogs, vlogs and podcasts. These alternatives are allowing us to escape the “tyranny of paper.” I hope you will enjoy it too. Look we are learning from podcasts in higher education!
Leaders & Legends of Online Learning – https://onlinelearninglegends.com/
Hi Jamie, thank you so much for all of your positive feedback on our OER. I am super excited to dig into the podcasts you recommended featuring Tony Bates. I regularly check his website (https://www.tonybates.ca/) for new insights his shared on his blog and so these podcasts are a great compliment to add to that already rich source of information. I’ll also make sure to add it to our collective library for others to be able to access easily in future. Lastly, I was also really impressed by your suggestion of a podcast on the OER that sees Nobel prize winners be interviewed by some mainstream media personalities e.g. Oprah, I think it would do wonders to bring the world of particularly research to the ordinary person and create a greater awareness around the impact of new discoveries in our everyday lives and in turn fuel even more citizen science projects. Of course the literature and peace prizes would make for wonderful topics of discussion too but my feeling is that at the very least the peace prize winners are generally well known and covered in the media already. I was even wondering what it would be like to have a podcast interview where children get to ask Nobel prize winners questions. That could be something very special to then share in our collective classes around the world.
Hey Jamie,
We’ve added the Leaders & Legends of Online Learning to the collab podcast library as well! Definitely agree that podcasts are a great way to avoid the tyranny of papers 😀
Thanks for sharing such valuable thoughts.
YES! We need more EdTech podcasts on our list. Thank you so much for your positive feedback.
Thank you for sharing these wonderful podcast resources! I’m excited to explore them more. Speaking of the “tyranny of paper”, I believe podcasts offer auditory learners in the classroom a great option. Instead of assigning them papers to read, the teachers can assign these audio files to their phones. To quote Mills (2010), “Multiliteracies matters to students today, who need access to a broadened range of textual practices and media platforms than students of the past. Multiliteracies matters to teachers, who see the vast disparities among learners, yet know that how they teach makes a significant difference in the lives of their students. Multiliteracies matters to everyone in
increasingly multicultural, globalised and digitally dependent societies.” (p. 11).”
References
Mills, K. A. (2010). The multiliteracies classroom. new perspectives on language and education Multilingual Matters.
Hi all-
Podcasting is one of the aspects of mobile learning I actually did have a bit of experience before going through the OER, but I still learned a LOT from the material you presented.
I’m a bit skeptical of the utility of podcasts in an educational environment. As I mentioned in one of my Padlet comments I think they can be useful for extracurricular work, homework etc, but I can’t seem to wrap my mind around how they could be effectively utilized in an actual classroom setting. To me I think it would just be sort of like when the teacher would roll-in the TV on the cart back in elementary school- for all the kids that was basically a sign that we were getting a “free” class and nobody really paid all that much attention to the video. I think there’s a lot of value in having students produce their own content, but the fact that podcasts are sort of”one way”- that they can’t be interacted with or manipulated- makes them a poor option for a classroom setting. That said, I’m reading some comments here from teachers who indicate that they’ve had success or are looking to implement podcasts into their teaching practice, so I could certainly be wrong.
Thanks again for a great OER!
Hi Jordan,
So even after having done this OER, I am quite inclined to agree with you. I think if teachers are interested in using podcasts in education, it “needs” to be with students as producers or by using podcasts as something to listen to whilst another activity is ongoing (drawing, building, designing etc). My major celebration of podcasts is them as an informal learning tool for lifelong learning, or as a process that students can use to represent their knowledge that is not in a written or real-time spoken format, in which they learn a ton of other digital literacies along the way.
I’ve also been interested to see that people here are using them with much success, though, so it seems there are effective and enjoyable ways to bring them into the classroom 🙂 Glad you enjoyed the OER and got something out of it too!
Hey Jordan,
Also just going to quote something Ben wrote in an earlier comment which is great for this topic, and shows how podcasts can be integrated successfully into a classroom in an engaging way:
“As for how to keep students on task while listening to podcasts, I personally use sketchnotes and other reading style handouts to keep students focussed while listening. Even in grade 9 I feel this is an effective strategy. I often ask studnets to draw 8 sketches while listening to episode that connect to big ideas and themes of the series. I also ask them to to ask 3 questions at the end of the episode, or to make predictions. We use the podcasts to help develop literacy skills.”
I think using podcasts in classrooms requires educators to become more creative with their students than asking them to just listen, which in my mind is a good thing for educators to do! Imagine we took all the stuff we asked students to do whilst listening to podcasts and started integrating it into when they listen to teachers as well. Could be an incredible way to foster active listening and good note taking/information processing activities 😀 The possibilities are endless.
Thanks Jamie, I was going to come in to say just this!
One nice thing about podcasts is that can be listened to (or watched, check out the latest post on our this wordpress site) anywhere! So teachers can choose to assign content for homework, they allow students to choose a podcast out of a list to use for literacy studies, or they can do whole class listening activities. Podcasts provide the students, as well as the teachers, so many options.
That’s a great strategy Ben, thanks for the suggestion!
I like the idea of using podcast to foster active listening and note-taking skills!
Agreed Ceci! With all of the focus on close reading, we can look to podcasts as a way to foster close listening skills.
Congratulations Podcast Team, you truly have created a well-rounded and informative OER. Thank you for the careful attention to detail and the integration of other OER’s made for a special touch. You have made an interconnected web between all of our moveable feasts and captured the essence of what we are looking for in an OER.
I use podcasts in my courses as options for student projects. As an online teacher, I lose the voice of the student with written submissions. I find students enjoy creating podcasts and videocasts instead of another PowerPoint presentation that they have in other courses. I enjoy hearing the student’s passion and excitement for the topic when they are speaking about it rather than writing.
For my personal life, I really only listen to podcasts when someone recommends one to me. I need to be cooking, cleaning, or some other mindless task for me to pay attention to them. My first question to anyone in the class, do you listen to podcasts while doing another task? How many people sit down and just listen? This is for my curiousity.
Also, with formal learning, do you think that teachers will ever move to podcasts in more of a flipped classroom approach? Do you think students will chose to listen to lessons rather than reading a textbook? If people are doing other things while listening, will students also need to be doing other things to pay attention?
Fantastic job everyone!
Hey Kristin,
Glad you enjoyed the integration of other OERs. It’s cool to hear you already use podcasts in your teaching! Have you heard back from them about how they feel making it or their experience of using podcasts educationally?
I never just sit and listen to podcasts, they’re always an added layer to a second activity! 😀 I’m curious about your idea of using podcasts to facilitate flipped classrooms. I guess in this model, what the students are doing whilst listening is probably their choice catered around how they like to learn and listen best?
Would be interested in hearing more on that idea from your side, and I’m sure others will chip in with comments too.
Hi Jaime,
I was surprised that many of my students choose the podcast option for their assignments. They really enjoy the opportunity to research, create and edit their presentations through different technologies. I would say that it is a great educational opportunity for many students to work with the technology as well as showcasing their knowledge on the subject.
The content delivery in a flipped classroom usually tends to be video based, but if the teacher is an engaging speaker, they could also deliver their content through podcasts that students can listen to on the go. I know that many of my online students are off competing in sports, but their is a lot of down time during travel where podcasts would be easier than watching videos to consume the knowledge. After this OER, I have been considering switching some of my online content to podcasts instead of written text.
Hi Kristin,
Thank you!
Students finding their voice, and actually listening to others voices, seem to be emerging as the best benefits of podcast integration into education. Yup, I also listen to podcasts while doing other tasks, and I do not think they should be used in class to replace teacher lectures. However, to connect to your question about textbooks, in my research for this OER, I came across multiple studies wherein students declared they would rather listen to content on podcast than read a textbook, submit a podcast rather than write an essay, and even share their podcasts with peers and others beyond the classroom. They agreed that making a podcast takes much longer and more preparation and skills than writing an essay, but they thought it was worthwhile and felt proud of it after. Since I can’t hyperlink here, the Bolden & Nahachewsky (2015) and the Vahtivuori-Hänninen et al. (2013) (in the education reference section on the OER) are both good studies to read because they have many student testimonies, feedback and advice on using podcasts.
With regards to your question about podcasts in flipped learning – yes, some educators are already using podcasts as a resource the students can access before coming to class. This has been met with positive feedback and in some cases even preferred over videos. Mainly, this acceptance is because of its mobility – when listening to a podcast, one does not need to keep watching the screen, and because of its low data usage, one can keep replaying it if their attention wanes. The one main negative drawback with podcasts is that they do not allow for engagement with the speaker, at least not instantly. One cannot pause the podcast and ask their question, but then again, this would be true with videos as well. A discussion forum on the LMS where the podcast can be hosted would help with this. And in a future with AI in education, a chatbot will be available 24/7 to answer some basic questions 😉
Nice, Binal.
I like how you are going a step further and thinking about AI integration with podcasts hosted on LMS sites like Canvas and Moodle. I believe this is a crucial part of our integration of technology for students. We are not focusing on teaching them one type of technology to use for their podcasts but allowing them to explore and try out new avenues that interest them. It is a problem-solving approach to learning, where students can become their researchers to discover what works best for them. I need to embrace podcasts more in my daily life because in another MET course this week, we are asked to listen to various podcasts on algorithms. I felt this topic come alive through the presented case studies. This method of delivery for that topic was beneficial, as I don’t feel as though I would have been as engaged if I had just read about it.
I can completely agree with the sentiment regarding students choosing other options rather than writing an essay. For online students to show engagement in the course, they need to provide artifacts of learning for every outcome, as opposed to a face-to-face class discussion of some topics. So, to allow more creativity and freedom from the students when they produce podcasts, they can break away from the mundane, daily typing.
Excellent post Kristin! I really like your questions.
Something that is interesting about #edtech is that students now have so many options to present their knowledge. For example, I even had students use TikTok to present their knowledge of the Russian Revolution is socials this year. I must say, it was one of the most engaging presentations I have seen on the topic. They understand the medium, so they knew how to dominate it. Students can now communicate their understanding in so many ways, and podcasts are just one of the options. I appreciate that as an online teacher, you have utilized the medium as an effective way to promote student voice.
As for when I listen to podcasts, for me, it is really ALL the time. I listen while eating breakfast, brushing my teeth, on the way to work…. you get the picture. I taught overseas for 5 years in Vietnam and one of the things that made life feel normal was being able to listen to podcasts whenever I wanted. It connected me to life in North America while I was so far away. So in that time I listened to A LOT of podcasts, and often. It was amazing while travelling! I would go to another country during one of my holidays and download enough podcasts to last all of my flights. I think it has made me a more attentive listener.
I agree that the multitude of options for demonstrating mastery is one of the great strengths of using edtech. It fits really well with Universal Design for Learning. For example, what if you have a student who struggles with motor skills and finds typing/handwriting laborious? A podcast would be an excellent way for this student to demonstrate their mastery without struggling with a physical barrier.
The key here for making podcasts (or any edtech) fit with Universal Design for Learning is to give students options. For me personally, I struggle cognitively with audio-only information so I would be really frustrated if an instructor forced me to make or listen to podcasts because audio-only information just doesn’t go into my brain as easily as written info. Because we all have different cognitive and physical strengths and limitations, letting students choose their own medium is really the best way to keep things universally accessible rather than forcing something specific, whenever possible.
Hi Anne,
I totally agree, and that’s what I really like about education and a subtly I think is sometimes missed in OERs. Every OER so far has had value, but any of them as a primary/only educational approach would fall flat. If anything, these OERs show us how much variety and choice can become a part of a thriving classroom. All skills are taught, and then methods for knowledge demonstration are varied. That would be an educational approach I’d totally be in for!
🙂
This is what is so great about self paced or blended learning. We give students Voice and Choice in how they want to learn. There is no reason students cant choose between a podcast, youtube video, or a reading passage to learn about a topic.
I also believe that adult learners would benefit from podcasts, as we have mentioned that many of us listen to while doing other things. I work with adults trying to complete their high school. I find that they struggle with finding time to sit down, watch videos and read the text. With podcasts, they can be absorbing the content while commuting to work or cooking dinner for their families. For some adult students, they are running machines out in the bush for days and have asked if they could listen to audiobooks for their book reports because downloading a book to their phone allows them to not rely on WiFi and they can find time in their days to complete their school work still. Another teacher declined the request because they said, no, we need to show that they can read at a grade 12 level. I was shocked by this idea that we couldn’t diversify the instructions to fit the student’s needs. They have chosen to return to high school during their adulthood, shouldn’t we as teachers attempt to support them any way we can?
Hi Kristin,
It’s so true that adult students have so much more to juggle in order to fit formal education back into their lives, compared to younger students whose only responsibility is often going to school. I know throughout the MET program I’ve heard lots of MET students say that they wouldn’t be able to fit a masters degree into their lives at all if it wasn’t online and asynchronous like this one.
Even though podcasts don’t always work for me as a way of getting information into my brain, I could see them being critical for some adults trying to fit education into their lives. This has me wondering how many of the students in our Digital Games course used the recorded readings instead of actually reading the text.
Hi Anne,
I still do not think that I would be able to listen to assigned readings than read them. I like the ability to highlight and annotate the text as I go along. For passages that you know you will be using for upcoming assignments, does it create more work first to listen and then go back to the text to pull quotations?
I think the aspect that podcasts are currently missing is the ability to search the text to find quotations, page numbers and proper references that very relevant in higher education.
I believe podcasts are great for people on the go. You can get through a massive amount of texts through listening while completing other daily tasks. I am not sure if that is enough of a trade-off for students when they need to incorporate the readings into their work. However, now that I think about it, it may cut down on exact quotations and include more paraphrasing when students go from a memory of what they heard.
Hi Ben,
Precisely what I was thinking in regards to different approaches to project presentations. I also had students submit TicTok videos for health and safety in the workplace. Some students who presented themselves in the text as “follow the rules, don’t take risks” types of students suddenly came alive with humour, excitement and style. I thoroughly enjoyed getting to know my online students in a different light. I find the podcast presentations a bit more serious and less silly, but there is still a significant component of humour thrown in.
When students use an initially used program in their social life, I believe I see more of their social media persona. This is an exciting blend between the two worlds that I don’t often see when teaching online. I should integrate more podcasts and technology into the courses so that students will feel more comfortable sharing the different aspects of their personalities. Do you ever create podcasts? I think a travel blog of your adventures would be fascinating!
There’s an interesting idea this week around taking podcasts, a medium that seems really conducive to (and is often used for) non-formal learning, and integrating it into formal education. I love this idea, since I’ve personally experienced the great educational benefit of learning from a podcast while taking long walks through my neighbourhood, but I wonder whether the struggle to pay attention might cause challenges when we try to take a medium that thrives as non-formal learning into a formal learning structure. Think of how many times you’ve almost fallen asleep reading school textbooks versus how it feels to read non-formally.
When I think of this challenge, I wonder if it might be advantageous to assign podcast listening along with another coordinating activity that students can do idly while the podcast plays. For example, I teach graphic design, so I could assign students a project where they draw while listening to a podcast on design, or perhaps they could spend time playing around in design software while listening to a podcast about design technologies. If I just assigned listening, they might fall asleep or zone out. Maybe an accompanying activity would help with attention and retention. What do you think?
Hi Anne,
Yes, most definitely. I do not think passively listening to a podcast in class is a good idea. In the classroom integration section we mention that this might be even worse than listening to the teacher lecturing because you can at least engage with a live teacher and ask questions. However, as a mobile supplementary resource, podcasts have been very useful in many studies referenced in the OER and students prefer listening to the lectures before class. Personally, I would have my students either find a podcast or create one if I were to use class time for them; listening can be done outside school, at the gym, during the commute, etc.
On the other hand, studies have shown that listening to podcasts have proven very beneficial to ELLs. Looking forward to hearing from people who have used podcasts in the class!
Like most things edtech (and really most things education these days), it requires some creativity and a welcome break from traditional approaches to formal learning to integrate podcasts successfully into lesson plans and assessments. Pairing podcast listening with an accompanying activity might take a bit of extra thinking with instructional design, but it could absolutely listen to better engagement and better learning with soft skills than taking the traditional approach of lecture/discussion + essay.
Hey Anne,
You hit the nail on the head of my central approach to if podcasts are considered in the realm of traditional education. I’ve mentioned it a few times in comments below, and I really do think this is the ideal when asking students to consume podcasts in classroom spaces: to pair it up with another activity that is creative (like drawing, painting, building etc). I think thats a great approach, as is the meta-game of making podcasts about a topic whilst listening to podcasts on that topic too 🙂
I have a vivid memory of a music class I took in elementary school where we had to listen to a symphony and draw what we imagined while listening. It was amazing blending modalities, learning about music but connecting it with another type of creativity. A “listen and express visually” exercise like that would be great with podcasts as well.
Thank you Podcast Team for an awesome OER! I really enjoyed the short videos and useful resources you provided. I have to admit that before exploring your OER, I’ve always seen podcasts as a source of entertainment. However, your OER opened my eyes to its educational potentials! I love the idea of letting students be both producers and consumers of podcasts. One benefit that really stood out to me is the opportunity for students to “develop their voice” by working on their own podcast projects. I wish that an activity like podcasting was available when I was in school as I personally feel that I struggled to find my voice sometimes. I never tried to make my own podcast because I think that my voice sounds weird and unnatural in recordings, but after looking through your OER and exploring a few voice exercises on the resources you provided, I’m excited to give podcasts a try!
I was also really intrigued by the business figures you provided. It’s good to see that podcasts are growing quickly and taking a place in the market, but I wondered how much money a podcast can make, so I did a quick google search. The results I found were overwhelmingly discouraging as most sources suggest that most podcasts don’t make money at all. However, some estimates suggest that big shows like This American Life can make a few millions of dollars per year from advertisement (Rhysider, 2019). Ads are often paid on a cost per 1000 downloads model. A common number I saw was around $25-40 per 1000 listeners. So if your episode had 10,000 listeners, your ad revenue would be $250-$400. According to Lisbyn, less than 50% of podcasts have over 136 downloads within 30 days of release, and less than 5% have more than 10,000 downloads, so it is pretty competitive. Other than advertisement and live shows, a lot of podcasts also rely on money from subscriptions, sponsorships, exclusive licensing, donations, and crowdfunding. Creators like Joe Rogan signed on for $100 million for making his content exclusive to Spotify, so it’s certainly possible to make lots of money from podcasting, but a strong program and audience base is needed. It was interesting to look into this, so I wanted to share what I found. Nevertheless, podcasting is a great and popular medium to share information, and I hope we’ll have more and more interesting shows to listen to in the future!
Hi Linda
We appreciate your feedback and we’re glad to hear you got something out of our OER. Yes, students developing their voice is so important. Especially at a young age. I too wish I had done some activities where I could have practiced this. Perhaps it’s not too late!
Your research on the business of podcasting is also great. It would make sense that many podcasts don’t make much money. I sort of see it as similar to YouTube (I did my A1 project on YouTube). Most YouTube channels don’t make a lot of money at all. You need to grow to a certain level before any real money starts coming in, and even then, it could be sporadic. There is an opportunity to make millions but it’s not the norm.
Thanks again,
Natalie
Hey Linda,
This is very cool research. I may speak to Ben and consider adding this to the site (you would be credited, of course)? I think what it highlights is that the business of podcasts is not really for the podcast makers, but more for the platforms and advertisers. So the producers of podcasts aren’t the central benefactors of where podcasts are making money, moments of big fame aside. Thats an important insight, because depsite the “downside” it should prevent podcasts becoming an inaccessible medium 🙂
Thanks for the extra info!
Hey Linda!
Thank you for your research on the business of podcasting. There is an extremely steep sliding scale and most podcasts do not have the ability to make enough money to support themselves at all. The growth of Celebrity Podcasts definitely skews our understanding of how much money CAN be made by starting a podcast. For most, a podcast is a passion project, or a way to further their already existing career. For example, there are a lot of comedians who start podcasts as something to add to their resume. If they can get someone famous to come onto their podcast, it is a way to show their chops and possibly increase their ability to get booked for stand up shows.
A fantastic podcast that really dives into this topic is called Start-Up, by Gimlet Media. It is a podcast about trying to start a podcast (very meta!). The show took place in 2016, when podcasting really was not something everyone knew about. I would recommend checking it!
https://gimletmedia.com/shows/startup/6nh3zg/gimlet-1-how-not-to-pitch-a-billionaire
Thank you all for the recommendations! I’ll definitely check out Start-Up. Your comments gave me more insights on what the podcasting business is like and other benefits of starting a podcast! Your point about podcasting to further an existing career is awesome! I’m convinced that podcasts are a great and easy way to start sharing a interest or passion. Who knows? Maybe it will take off and you’ll make some money and fame along the way! As podcasts grow in popularity and draw in more advertisement, I think we’ll see more adoption and sponsorship by large organizations and businesses to share information through podcasts as well!
Hello Podcast Team,
Thanks for sharing your amazing creation! What I loved most is the resources you linked to support educators with implementing podcasts in their classroom. In the past I have given podcasts as an option for students to create for a final project and a few students have done them, but I think these resources can help me to guide students and help them create even better products.
You mentioned a limitation of podcasts in education is searching for podcasts isn’t easy and I would totally agree with this. The podcasts I have used in the classroom in the past have been podcasts that I came across and made note of their value for future use. I find it time consuming and difficult to search out a podcast to fit a specific need. Similar to when searching for a video that matches my content and purpose, a podcast may only have some relevant parts. I wish there was a “start here” share button for a podcast like Youtube has for videos when you only want to share a component, however, would that take away from the experience if it was only a part of the podcast?
I think it would be cool if there was a resource for educators to link various podcasts that match a topic, or the ability to add hashtags to help narrow the search. For example, In Biology we may be learning about the digestive system and I can search for podcasts on the digestive system but maybe I only want to learn about digestive enzymes, the more specific the topic for education the greater challenge I have finding it.
Fantastic work!
Katlyn
Thank you, Katlyn! I’m glad you found the resources helpful. Yes, the biggest limitation is the search for and the easy sharing of podcasts. You have to listen to the whole episode in most cases, and then sometimes find it is not exactly what you want. As you mention, maybe just one part of it is useful. Hashtags are a great idea! We should let Spotify and Apple know 🙂
I will echo what Jamie said in a comment below, that because of how easy it is to create podcasts, we should take the opportunity to make content where we see a gap. It would be a good project for students to look for very specific podcasts and in finding a gap, create their own. I understand, however, the time commitment this would take. Perhaps if they work in groups they can, by the end of the course, have created and compiled a whole series of episodes on every organ system!!
Hey Podcast Team,
What a wonderful team introduction on the podcast! Loved it 🙂 It is also so creative of you guys to include the other OERs on your site, bringing the course content together on this penultimate presentation. I spotted Video Primary, DIY & Mobile Collaboration. Did I miss any? Let me know 🙂 It is a real feast! I’m not a regular consumer of podcasts, but your OER makes me interested in this topic and willing to explore more. I’m so excited about trying podcasts in some of my classes in the fall.
Your podcast statistics infographic is so well done, which summarized current literature in such a neat way. The categorization of the reasons and benefits of integrating podcasts into classrooms is clear and convincing as well. The tools and steps you provided here make me really want to try to create my own podcast. Speaking of the benefits of podcasts, I recall a question that was raised while we were hosting Video Primary earlier. Yi asked, “How to help students who feel discomfort making videos?” I think podcasts could be another option for those students. Kat also mentioned, “it would also give students who feel more timid when presenting in front of their peers a great opportunity to showcase their work through a podcast”. Just like videos, podcasts can help develop self-efficacy, critical thinking, problem solving, technical and multiliteracy skills.
One suggestion I’d like to make is to have the references on one page so that it is easier for the readers to find the information they need and not to miss anything. But overall, a very professional Google site. It is so well designed and laid out.
Great job, team!
Thank you so much for your comments, Ceci. Very nice – you only missed the 5G OER!
I hope you do try out podcasts and that you and your students have lots of fun with them! You are very correct in saying that podcasts are a better option for those who are not comfortable making videos of themselves, or even those who would not want to present in front of the class. The meta skills you mention are very important 21st century skills and podcasts are one way of helping kids develop them.
Thank you also for your suggestion about references. We did consider combining all references into one page, but then we thought since we have an intro page for our 3 major sections, we can divide them up so the references for each section are easier to find 🙂
Thanks, Binal! I did miss one 😛 Will dig in more this week for sure 🙂
Hi Team,
Thanks so much for a great project, it was easy to navigate and you definitely did the topic justice! I enjoyed the opportunities to contribute throughout it.
I have never seen myself as a “podcast” person but now reading through many of the comments, I realize that I am. I often listen to podcasts while crafting, working out, walking the dog, or walking to work. In the past year I’ve also started contributing to my favourite podcast’s Patreon and I have bought items advertised on others using referral codes (a friend calls my Quip toothbrush my podcast brush). I listen to a podcasts in English on a variety of subjects and also use them to improve my French and Spanish.
Despite all this, I had never thought about podcasts’ educational opportunities. I am now motivated to find some French podcasts for my students and I to listen together as I believe it’s important for French Immersion students to be exposed to a variety of accents and so much French media prioritizes “Standard French,” also known as “Parisian French.” I think podcasts could be an interesting way to explore different topics and also get exposure to various accents. I’m also interested in having my students create podcasts and am looking forward to exploring some of your resources further.
Thanks again!
Hi Megan,
Thank you for your comments and feedback! 🙂
You are a podcast person for sure! I’m also happy to see that you have an idea to try podcasts out with your students and hope they have fun with them!! Alternatively, you can ask your students to search for podcasts in different French accents. This way they will be forced to listen and pay attention before they bring it to share with the class 🙂
Hello Podcast Team!
After viewing your OER this week, I feel inspired to implement podcasts into the classroom, by creating little producers and having them be consumers of podcasts too. I have had one student create a podcast before, but I haven’t played podcasts for them. I like the abundance of podcasts you’ve provided. It would be a great alternative during quieter times in the classroom where they can just simply listen. I do question how engaged and for how long they would stay engaged to a podcast that is simply auditory. Additionally, I did not know the different types of podcasts, I just thought they were recorded audio. So perhaps if I were to show a live podcast or a video podcast it would capture the students’ attention more!
While watching one of the videos on your site I agree that podcasts develop lifelong skills such as critical thinking, empathy, and communication however, it mentions that podcast would be great alternative for students who struggle with writing. At the elementary age, I think students would have to write their script before actually producing the podcast, so I am contemplating with the idea of a podcast being a writing alternative. I think in the older grades, students would be able to share their thoughts more freely without a written script, but I struggle to see students being able to include all the key points they want without it written down. I suppose they could just write a few key points and elaborate.
Finally, on a personal level, I find it hard to just sit and listen to a podcast, I need to be doing something mindless to pay attention, but that is just my attention span haha! I enjoy listening to podcasts while I am cleaning the house, that is about the only time actually.
Thank you for sparking my interest in podcasts in the classroom. I will definitely be adding these to my ongoing digital toolbox doc.
Hey Kylie,
Podcasts are best listened to whilst doing something else! So many of my friends who are artists/graphic designers/illustrators by profession have podcasts going in their studios all day 🙂
I agree with your reflection on the fact that elementary focuses on writing is important, but in the older grades shifting to more spoken based knowledge sharing could be cool. It then also ties in with a bunch of other 21st century literacies we encourage in older students as well.
Thanks for sharing these thoughts! There definitely lies so much value in conversing about these topics and refining our ideas about where and how certain media can be used.
Hi Kylie,
Just wanted to add to Jamie’s point that the alternative of doing a podcast instead of an essay, for example, allows to students who struggle with writing to be more creative and have more leeway in how they structure their spoken word. Essay writing, although a very important skill, can become quite repetitive and monotonous for some kids. Even though they would have to write a script, they can listen to their podcast over and over and actually hear how it sounds, whether it conveys their point like they want it to, and if not, they can keep editing the parts they are not happy with. It would be much easier to edit an essay, yes, but this is an alternative. Podcasts can help people actually listen to what is being said and how is being said instead of just hearing it.
As we’ve mentioned in the classroom integration section, merely playing a podcast in class and having students listen passively is not good pedagogy at all, and probably worse than the teacher lecturing all class. However, as a supplemental resource to come back to or to pre-listen before a flipped lesson would be valuable. What do you think?
Thank you so much for your thoughtful reflection!
Hi Binal,
You bring up a good point about the technical parts of oral speech, the inflection, and tone used to portray content. These are definitely important skills for all learners to practice. I think being an engaging and exciting podcast producer is a talent in itself for sure!
I agree with assigning podcasts to pre-listen to is a great way to build some prior knowledge on content in the higher grades and onto post-secondary. I am elementary focused, and I could see a few of my students possibly listening to the podcast for homework, but many wouldn’t. I think it is a great extension for students who would like to and as the teacher providing these additional resources for these students.
I absolutely love the intro podcast. It was nice to hear all your voices and I felt a connection with you guys. I found your OER quite engaging and you guys worked hard to demonstrate the educational benefits of podcasting. It’s a shame though that most of the available podcasts are in English. I reckon that this limits their audience as second language learners might prefer to watch a video over listening to someone speaking in a language that they don’t master yet. Moreover podcasts might be more appropriate for a more mature audience. I doubt they would suit young children who require dynamic and interactive learning tools to keep them focused.
Hi Pascaline,
I had similar thoughts to you as well. I was wondering how elementary students would stay engaged and listen to an entire podcast. If the podcast was about 20-30minutes longs, I think it would have to be paused and discussed throughout to keep the students attention. They could also be taking notes, doodling, or played during lunch or snack. I suppose you could break the podcast into smaller chunks and listen to it throughout the week. Alternatively, I could see families listening to these on road trips and things like that, although I could also see families just plugging their kids into a movie. It’s hard to say if children under 10 would be engaged in podcasts or not. Thoughts?
Hey you two,
These are great points! And I think an important part of the conversation for all media brought into classrooms.
For videos, for example, good pedagogy does involve pausing, asking questions, and replaying sections that are encouraged to be focused on. I think podcasts could be used in a very similar way.
My favourite thing about podcasts, though, is that their existence alone IS education. Everyone who is listening to podcasts is learning something, and this informal DIY education is far reaching. This means that podcasts may be best suited as supplementary additions to classrooms: think about playing them whilst students do other activities like painting, or drawing. Alternatively, the value of podcasts for students (especially younger groups) lies strongly in the production of podcasts rather than the consumption.
Podcasts for a second language speaker would certainly be tough, but then there is an incentive to find podcasts in your first language or make one of your own if you can’t find any 🙂 The beauty of the medium is that anyone can step in and fill an identified gap. If you’ve got podcasts in any language other than English, please send them through! We’d be happy to feature them 🙂
“The beauty of the medium is that anyone can step in and fill an identified gap.” Well said, Jamie 🙂
The issue of ELL podcasts has come up a couple of times already this week. Really interesting to consider HOW podcasts can help improve English Language Learning. I think in both the case of English Language Learners AND Elementary school students, short episodes within a podcast series would foot the bill. For example: The Unexplainable Disaperance of Mars Patel is a fantastic elementary level podcast for students in grades 4-6. The episodes are never more than 20 minutes, and the show utilizes the audio format to engage learners. Sound effects are extremely important part of the show.
As for how to keep students on task while listening to podcasts, I personally use sketchnotes and other reading style handouts to keep students focussed while listening. Even in grade 9 I feel this is an effective strategy. I often ask studnets to draw 8 sketches while listening to episode that connect to big ideas and themes of the series. I also ask them to to ask 3 questions at the end of the episode, or to make predictions. We use the podcasts to help develop literacy skills.
Thanks for the engaging thoughts!
Hi Benjamin,
Thanks for your suggestions on the sketchpad and using podcasts for literacy skills. Great for listening, comprehending, inferring, and predicting skills! Sometimes I struggle with how to get social studies or science content to the students other than myself, youtube, or reading activities. Podcasts would be a good alternative and great way for them to learn how to take notes that make sense to them and shows their individuality.
Hi Pascaline, although the podcasts we included on our OER are in English that isn’t to say there aren’t any in other languages as there definitely is a growing trend among smaller language communities to create their own podcasts. In my first language they even have a different name! A podcast is called a “potgooi”- the literal translation being a pot (like the cookware) + throw. Here is a link (https://player.fm/series/kopkrap-rsg-potgooi) to one of the many hosted by a local radio station and it focuses on high school students, the first podcast listed is focused on teaching mathematical concepts related to geometry.
As someone who has listened to a few podcasts years ago, it was nice to be refreshed on ideas for using them in teaching. Also, finding and browsing podcasts seems to be easier now than ever before. With their proliferation there has been more and more geared towards and even created by students of all ages. The educational value of using them in the classroom is clear, and I’m already thinking of ideas that will facilitate learning with the new pandemic realities. One of the biggest benefits in my mind is the small file sizes and low tech. barriers to entry. This means that classrooms and homes of a variety of circumstances will be able to consume and create podcasts, even without 5G access! I especially enjoyed the podcast where the young students were debunking myths associated with first nations communities.
Looking on the marketing and business side, teaching students to be aware of hidden advertisements within podcasts and targeted ads within podcasts seems like a prudent skill to teach. With the ease of voice-to-text searching, it seems as though companies could easily blanket podcasts geared towards youth with targeted ads which are shown to be more effective than ads in many other places (shown by your infographic). Having said that, the low barrier to entry, the important skills developed in the creation of podcasts, and the wealth of information on nearly any topic found in existing podcasts, it is clear there are tons of benefits here.
Thanks for creating this valuable resource.
Thank you for your comment and thoughts, Jonathan. It is indeed easier to access podcasts now, however, there still needs to be an easier way to share an episode you like with others. I think once that is easier, podcasts will be even easier to integrate into daily life and lessons.
So glad you found something you enjoyed 🙂
Hey Jonathan,
Podcasts being possible without 5G is great! Especially in a world where education doesn’t always get to be the first to see the leaps in tech 🙂
Wise insights RE podcasts and business leading to a lot of implicit advertising. We see this on platforms like Youtube which weren’t created for education, but are now being used for it, and even in TV and movies with things like product placement. I think noticing advertising and being conscious of it goes across the board for online and media engagement, and is a super important skill for us to be bringing to the attention of students. Definitely relevant to podcasting as well!
Happy to hear our OER was a good refresher course.
Thank you Podcast Team! What a great website!
Thank you for the link to our OER on Video Conferencing as well!
The democratization of podcasting is very interesting as it makes you wonder what has happened to radio in this current time. I used to be an avid listener of the radio and enjoyed most on my commute when I could hear stories from the radio hosts and their guests who would call in. Now with podcasts, you have the opportunity to be selective with the material you desire to hear and often can avoid listening to advertisements. The Listening Statistics did not seem to shocking at all. It seems that the variety of reasons people listen to podcasts and the availability of such information and entertainment, makes much sense. I love being able to listen to podcasts because I can multitask and do other things while learning about important information.
After navigating through your well organized website, I would love to be able to integrate Podcasting into the classroom with my students. I think it would also give students who feel more timid when presenting in front of their peers a great opportunity to showcase their work through a podcast. I think it would also help to promote student’s voice, so they know that their voice matters and they can be heard…and podcasting can be a great way to do showcase this. Thank you for the links to strategies as well as the curriculum guide for teachers! I am very excited to read more information on that. Thank you for the resources.
I found useful some other editing tools that I have used before in podcasting are: Sound Studio (costs money) and Levelator (free)
Wonderful work Team! thank you
Hey Kat,
I was the same with radio! Loved it! And I think the multitasking ability with podcasts is another reason they’re very popular, thanks for brining that up.
Showcasing student’s voices is such a nice sentiment, and a really cool thread to use in education which podcasting does indeed make super easy.
Will add your editing tools to the site where they can be found and used by others 🙂
Glad you enjoyed the OER overall 😀
Hello World of Podcast Team!
What a great OER you have created. It was very clear and user friendly and I appreciated how you pulled together your resources as well as embedding in some of our own classes OER’s! That was a great idea.
There is so much to learn about podcasting and up until this year I will admit that my experience was a bit limited. A few months ago I started listening to the House of #EdTech podcast as it has lots of information and resources to help in implementing tech into the classroom. I have used Anchor.fm a few times to create my own podcasts and have also used podcasting with my elementary students a couple of times. There are many possibilities for how podcasts can be used and I think this will be a great resource to use in the fall when we return back to school.
Podcasts are now becoming easier for anyone to produce and I think this ease of use can only be a positive for helping more people’s voices to be heard. It also allows more people to consume educational content in a different and often more convenient format.
For some reason, I was unable to get the Flipgrid video to work, however, I will leave my thoughts here. In terms of implications, I can see that there may be more availability of podcasts for the classroom. This could open things up for students to share their own voice and connect with other students and educators around the world and hear other voices as well. There is money to be made in the Edtech business and I’m sure more podcasts will be geared towards educators. With more podcasts aimed towards education, then there will be more availability and more choice for how podcasts can be used in the classroom. The downfall would be the cost of accessing podcasts for schools and districts.
Hey Meipsy,
So glad you enjoyed the resource and may return to it again in the future! I love that you highlighted podcasts as a medium that is “helping more people’s voices to be heard”, I think that is one of the central draws of podcasts and what makes them so popular!
Sorry to hear Flipgrid didn’t work, let us check that out and make sure it’s not a bigger issue. I appreciate your positive outlook on business and podcasts for education. I personally worry that more business would mean less educational access and relevance, but you’ve put it in a new light for me.
Will also add the House of #EdTech to our collab library. It sounds like a good one 🙂
I will admit, that my first thoughts of business in Education would mean less resources to access when school budgets are already so tight. Schools are already having to be creative with the funds they have and I can see that having to pay for podcast subscriptions may hinder them being used as a resource. However, perhaps some of these podcast companies will have a free or reduced cost for educators/ school use.
Hi team!
Great work. I feel the page flowed very well and it was incredibly easy to access from my mobile device. I liked the intro podcasts and the explanations behind your resources.
My favourite thing was the shared education resources such as, circle round and wow in the world. I listened to Shortie the Leaky Bucket from circle round and imagined how much students would love to listen to that. Not only were the stories engaging but they are so easy to access! Thanks for sharing.
Hi Lindsay,
Thanks for the feedback. Yes, there are so many great options and resources out there, it was hard to choose what to put on the site! Glad you found resources you may be able to use.
Hi Podcast team,
First off, I would like to congratulate you on a well designed and thought out OER that I will recommend to colleagues. You definitely had a well rounded approach to discussing both consumption and production of podcasts.
The website is mobile friendly and I love that you give a downloadable version of the infographics. I found it hard to navigate the last activity from my phone as the embedded Flipgrid isn’t responsive, therefore I han to scroll left and right to see it.
I appreciated that you linked every OER into yours.
I have long been a PodCast consumer, as I think it’s a great and easy way to access personal development ressources. I listen to a wide variety of podcasts, from nutrition, to fitness, organisation, relationships, teaching and budgeting. Your OER made me think further about the potential of Podcasting in education. It is certainly is a great way for students to show what they’ve learn. It can also help redefine how we teach, even more so with the current homeschooling context. What if teachers had podcasts for their students to listen at home? What if students had their own podcast from home to show their learning? It could certainly be part of a school with no walls, where teaching and learning can be done from anywhere and at anytime.
Thank you for making me see podcasting from a different perspective.
V
Hi Veronique,
So glad to hear you enjoyed our OER and would recommend it to others! I agree, podcasts fit nicely in a school with no walls…our current reality. Students can benefit from both listening to podcast and creating their own. The variety can also help keep them motivated and engaged.
Your feedback is appreciated.
Hi Podcast Group! Thank you so much for putting together this OER. I really appreciate how you focused on both the consumption and production aspect of podcasts. Overall, your OER was well organized, engaging to read and visually appealing. I like how you included links to downloadable versions of key documents as well as provided tips as to how to best view the content – nice touch 🙂
I mentioned this on a couple of my responses on your site, but I thought I would post it here as well. A podcast that I recommended to my co-worker to use in her class is Stuff You Missed In History Class. The podcasters have a long list of events and people that they discuss in an informative and engaging way. I listen to it frequently and think it may be a good fit for your collaborative library.
I also wanted to highlight a quote of yours from the Appeal of Podcasts page in the Finding and Listening section under Why:
“This democratic medium is filled with distinct personalities, cultural innovation, and companionship over shared passions. Listeners are provided with information, inspiration, entertainment, enlightenment, emotional engagement, companionship, and a sense that we are not alone.”
I love how you highlighted the relationship aspect between the podcaster and listener. I think that one of the strongest draws to podcasts is its power of narrative and storytelling that has been, is, and will be, at the heart of connection between humans. Podcasts allow for this relationship building to span spatial distance. I’m not sure how common it is, but at the end of the Stuff You Missed In History podcasts, the recorders read our listener mail, respond to questions, address concerns with previous content, and thank listeners for resources and items that they have sent in. These are all examples of how they are building community within their podcast.
Lastly, I found the section about advertising through podcasts interesting. I have to admit that I haven’t actually bought anything suggested by the podcasters that I listen to, but I have definitely visited websites for products that they have recommended, which is more than I have done for pop-up ads or YouTube ads. I think this once again relates back to the relationship and trust aspect that a listener may develop with the podcasters.
Really enjoyed your OER and I’m looking forward to incorporating podcasts into the class next year!
Julia
Hi Julia,
Thank you so much for your comments and feedback. We are very glad you enjoyed interacting with the OER. It was important to us to look at both the producer and consumer sides, whether from a business perspective or an educational one.
Your comment about the narrative of podcasts and storytelling being something that brings people together is a great example of the First People’s Principles of Learning in practice. Often with representation, the question comes down to appropriation and “who has the right to tell the story?”. With podcasts, it can become a lot easier to collect the stories from the source and share them with the world 🙂
Thank you also for your recommendation – we will be sure to add it to our collective library!
Hi Julia, thank you for your detailed comments on our OER- it’s much appreciated and we’ll be sure to add your suggestion of Stuff You Missed in History Class to the collaborative library. I’m also really interested to give it a listen myself as history was one of my favorite subjects at school. Another podcast that follows a similar trend, which I rate as one of my most-loved is Revisionist History with Malcolm Gladwell. Do you know of it? Gladwell often uses an unknown tidbit in history as the starting point for his episodes. I often come home from work just to play the very same podcast episode I listened to on my drive to work a second time, so excited by what I learned that day and just because I’m afraid I might have missed a small detail. As you mentioned there truly is something very special and personal about listening to a podcast.
Hi Carla,
I haven’t heard of that one but I will definitely try it out! I had a question that I forgot to mention in my original response, so I thought I would ask it now… have you noticed any specific ways in which podcasters build trust and community with their listeners? I find it so interesting that there’s the ability to build such a strong (arguably) one-sided bond. Just curious as to your thoughts.
Thanks again,
Julia
Hey Julia,
I think what you mentioned in your original post (about podcasters reading out and replying to emails, responding to complaints/corrections, thanking people for resources etc) is a large part of what builds community and trust. I see this across the board in podcasts, from ones just between friends talking and from ones about true crime, and I think it makes listeners feel like they’re part of the conversation and part of the medium rather than just being consumers of it.
Hi Julia, to add to what Jamie has said, I (this is purely speculative from my side) think the fact that many podcasts end up having a narrative storytelling type of backbone in their format whether intentionally planned or not by the host has led listeners to feel like they’re getting to know their host in a personal way. Podcasts are also a very transparent medium as they are created by hosts that want to share the information they have on a particular topic of interest i.e. they want to shed light on some truth associated therewith, they have nothing to gain by spreading lies and they aren’t trying to sell something to you. Knowing this upfront before you start listening to a podcast might be contributing to the feeling of trust being built with the host?
Happy to say that Stuff You Missed In History Class is up 😀
Hey Julia,
Thanks for the feedback and the awesome rec! I am a big fan of Stuff You Should Know, but need to dive a bit deeper into Stuff you Missed in History Class!
As for the advertising section: I think its 100% true that we have such stronger ties to our podcast hosts than we do to someone on a commercial. We connect with and relate to the host, which is such a fantastic opportunity for advertisers to take advantage of. I am curious to see where advertising in podcasts goes moving forward.
Hi, Podcast Team, well done!
I enjoyed your resourceful site which inspired me on how to integrate podcast more into the classrooms. I also like that you included the site of the Video Primary Team.
But for some reasons, I can’t open or listen to any of the podcasts that you guys uploaded. I tried to click on the links and the new page said “something went wrong” .
My understanding of most of the podcasts are basically Youtube without images. I really like the infographic you guys made, it is really clear (I think most of the students nowadays also prefer to look at infographics rather than words) and how you made it available for download (small details but considerate).
Personally I did not listen to many podcasts, one of the main reasons was that English is my second language, and podcasts usually don’t come with scripts so when I encountered new words then it became difficult for me to proceed. (However, now that I think about it again, this difficulty might just be a good reason for the teacher to use podcast and guide the students how to do it on their own.) Another reason is that the quality of many Chinese podcast programs on the Apple podcast platform are not very high. I recently paid for a podcast program about history on an App developed by a famous magazine. Within the recent 6 months, I have listened to more podcast, but none of them are from the famous podcast platforms. Most of the podcast are introduced to me through different WeChat (the most popular social IM application in China) official accounts, and from there you will usually get access to their mini programs and that’s where you will find series of recorded videos or audios. The point is, we could see the trend of making learning more accessible and mobile.
Again, thank you for putting these useful resources together and sharing them with us.
Hi Jane,
Thank you so much for your feedback! We will check to see why you were unable to access the podcast links and hopefully you can listen to them.
Your experience with podcasts in a second language without a script is understandable, and not uncommon. I’m glad you suggested that this difficulty might be a good reason to use podcasts as a learning tool. There have been many recent studies with ELLs using podcasts to improve their grammar and vocabulary. As you can more easily interact and manipulate a recording (compared to a live lecture, for example) students can pause and rewind and replay as many times as they need to, without feeling like they are holding anyone else back.
Thank you also for raising awareness to the fact that not all podcasts are mainstream. Sometimes, like with other apps and games, it is the off-beat or indie producers that have remarkable content to share. Please feel free to leave us some recommendations 🙂
Glad you enjoyed the OER!
Hi Jane,
So sorry to hear the links are not working for you. I would hate for you to miss out, so I’ll include some direct links here so you can explore a bit. Hopefully these links work. It is a mix of podcasts we found and others that were suggested by others in the class.
1) https://soundcloud.com/care-learn-podcast
2) https://themoth.org/podcast
3) https://www.vpr.org/programs/why-podcast-curious-kids#stream/0
4) https://armchairexpertpod.com/
5) https://www.iheart.com/podcast/105-stuff-you-should-know-26940277/
6) https://www.scientificamerican.com/podcast/60-second-science/
7) https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/youre-wrong-about/id1380008439
8) http://thepastandthecurious.com/
9) https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-dream/id1435743296
10) https://www.iheart.com/podcast/stuff-you-missed-in-history-cl-21124503/
Thank you so much Natalie, unfornately, I still can not open the one from Soundcloud and podcasts.apple. Other than those two, other links work! Thank you. I will explore more of the world of podcast.
Hi Jane,
Glad you liked the site! I remembering being in China and being so amazed by WeChat (it was my wallet, my facebook, my twitter, my whatsapp, and a few other things too!), but my limited knowledge of Mandarin meant I missed things too sometimes.
We’ve just tested the links and they work on our side. Could you test them with a different browser and see if the problem persists? Alternatively, if you are working off a VPN there may be some problems in accessing them. Those are some steps to take – let us know if they work or not and we’ll see if we can test it further from there and see if we can sort out that issue for you.:)
J
Thanks Jane! I wonder: can podcasts evolve to be more suitable for English Language Learners? How about those who are hard of hearing. I wonder closed captioning technology for podcasts will ever be available. Great feedback, Thank you!
Can’t android phones now closed caption anything being played on the fly?
https://support.google.com/accessibility/android/answer/9350862?hl=en
Thats awesome I didnt know this. I tried the same with iphone and I couldnt get cc for podcasts. Maybe there is an app or extension. Or possibly Im doing it wrong!
Hi Benjamin and Jane,
There has definitely been some work done by folks who provide transcriptions of their podcasts in order to improve access. 99 Percent Invisible is one of them, as is Freakonomics and This American Life. There are also a few podcasts about learning English that provide transcripts like English Across the Pond, Spoken Stories, and Learn English through Art & Design There are also some fans who provide transcripts for podcasts they enjoy, like this one for Welcome to Nightvale. Other podcasts will include journalism articles as part of it. While these are not exact transcripts of the podcasts, it does present the same information in a different format. Some examples of these are Cat People and Dirty John.
I think there is some good movement in right direction here and hopefully more podcasts will follow suit!
Note: I haven’t listened to all of these podcasts but can definitely recommend Freakonomics, This American life and Cat People.
https://99percentinvisible.org/episodes/
https://freakonomics.com/category/transcripts/podcast-transcripts/
https://www.thisamericanlife.org/
https://player.fm/series/series-2021357
https://player.fm/series/spoken-stories-1322012
https://player.fm/series/learn-english-through-art-design
https://cecilspeaks.tumblr.com/
https://longreads.com/2020/03/16/tiger-trafficking-in-america/
https://www.latimes.com/projects/la-me-dirty-john/
Thanks Megan! This is an excellent addition for our audience this week. I assume more podcasts will start doing this as we move forward. I am glad that Welcome to Night Vale is doing this as I like to use it in my classroom and have several ELL students every year.
As a follow up, I messaged the makers of the podcast that I support on Patreon (You’re Wrong About) and asked them if transcription would be available for their podcast and they messaged me back saying that they are currently looking for professional provider to do this for them.
I’m glad I reached out and hopefully more podcast makers will consider providing transcripts to improve accessibility to their work!
Thank you Megan,
Wonderful resources! I also hope that more podcast makers can provide transcripts that would be very helpful for ELL learners. At the same time, I also wish that there would be more high quality Chinese podcasts, which to some extend, would encourage students to get to know and use them more.
Yes Megan, thanks for looking into this!
There’s also Otter.ai, (https://otter.ai/edu) a service that offers synchronized audio, and real-time transcription. They’re beginning to get integrated into university lectures as well.
We started looking into using this service at the hospital, as part of our move to virtual care over Zoom. I’m not 100% for AI/automated services as there are standards that should be followed to ensure quality captioning. It’s not enough to just see the text, the captions should be accurate, styled and parsed properly. There’s a great resource that has more info on guidelines: https://dcmp.org/learn/captioningkey